As one of new types of high-power and high-energy density rechargeable batteries, a rechargeable lithium battery has been recently utilized which is charged and discharged by the transfer of lithium ions through an on aqueous electrolytes olution between the positive and negative electrodes.
For such a rechargeable lithium battery, a negative electrode using a lithium-alloying material, such as silicon, for the negative active material has been studied. However, in the case where the lithium-alloying material, such as silicon, is used as the active material of the negative electrode, the active material is powdered or delaminated from the current collector during charge and discharge because the active material expands and shrinks in volume when it stores and releases lithium. This lowers a current-collecting capacity of the electrode and accordingly deteriorates charge-discharge cycle performance characteristics, which has been a problem.
In order to solve the above-described problem, the present applicant has proposed a negative electrode, for use in rechargeable lithium batteries, which is obtained by providing, on a surface of a current collector, a layer of a mixture containing a binder and active material particles containing silicon and/or a silicon alloy and then sintering the mixture layer while placed on the current collector (Patent Document 1).
For rechargeable lithium batteries using carbon material or metallic lithium as a negative active material, dissolving carbon dioxide in nonaqueous electrolytes or encapsulating carbon dioxide in a battery has been proposed (Patent Documents 2-12).
The rechargeable lithium battery described above as a proposal of the present applicant exhibits a high charge-discharge capacity and shows superior cycle performance characteristics. However, the active material particles in the negative electrode increase in porosity with repetitive charge-discharge cycling to result in the increased thickness of the negative electrode, which has been a problem.    Patent Document 1: PCT Int. Publication No. WO 02/21,616    Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 4,853,304    Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6-150975    Patent Document 4: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 6-124700    Patent Document 5: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 7-176323    Patent Document 6: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 7-249431    Patent Document 7: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 8-64246    Patent Document 8: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 9-63649    Patent Document 9: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 10-40958    Patent Document 10: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-307771    Patent Document 11: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-329502    Patent Document 12: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-86243